BMW R1200RT/R1250RT Forum

Bicycle stores, sell a film used on the frames of mountain bikes to protect them from rocks, much thicker than film used by motorcyclists. I cut a piece to fit my K1600, no more scratching

This is what my sister made for me, cheap, stops the scratches and can hold other keys. The material is padded faux leather. I also have a black neoprene one for my GS.

This is what my sister made for me, cheap, stops the scratches and can hold other keys.

Is the correct solution.

I'm using DaverJ's solution.  Problem solved.

I, too, use just the key with fob in jacket pocket-after a few thousand miles I did have some black marks. They would probably polish out, but I don't care so much.

RTman10 wrote: This problem affects us all
Not me...

Not me either. Keyless ride.

Not sure what's worse , keyless or marks.  I had a keyless 1600.  One morning the battery was flat. 
You can ride with a scuff on the yoke but you can't when you have no way of taking off the steering lock.

I got this in the end to minimise the damage.

https://www.motorcycleparts-hornig.com/ ... h-pad.html

Benchmark wrote: I got this in the end to minimise the damage.

https://www.motorcycleparts-hornig.com/BMW-R-1200-RT-LC/Carbon-Fiber-GFK/Dash-pad.html

That's what I have too.  Ugly ain't it?

My first RT was a 1996.  I had what looked identical stuck on. 
Somebody has obviously found some in the back of an old cupboard and is selling them all,over again. Back then it cost £1.99

RTman10 wrote: My first RT was a 1996.  I had what looked identical stuck on. 
Somebody has obviously found some in the back of an old cupboard and is selling them all,over again. Back then it cost £1.99

costs more than that now!

RTman10 wrote: Not sure what's worse , keyless or marks. I had a keyless 1600. One morning the battery was flat.
You can ride with a scuff on the yoke but you can't when you have no way of taking off the steering lock.

Never tried mine yet but as I'm sure you know, the keyless bikes come with a second plastic flimsy looking spare "key" which works differently from the main proximity fob. Instead of just being within range of the bike like the main fob, you stick it under the dash somewhere to work. But of course that's no use if you've left it at home and you are out somewhere when your main fob fails or is lost. I don't carry the second key with me but maybe I should in view of your experience.

Think I recall you have to put the plastic key near the filler cap.  My point was that if you lock the steering on a keyless bike, ie full lock and press the teet if the bike battery for whatever reason goes flat you can't get it off no matter how many fods  you have in your pocket.

I misunderstood your point and thought by flat battery you meant the fob battery, not the bike one, hence my comments about the weird spare key.

If the bike battery is too low to start, then you can't use the bike whether keyless or keyed. Being able to unlock the steering on a keyed bike with a flat battery isn't much of an advantage over keyless because you are still unable to use the bike. And since I guess it requires only a small amount of power to operate the unlock mechanism on a keyless, the battery is unlikely to be so flat that it won't do that, even if it does not have enough power to start the bike.

Well when mine went flat the bike was in the shed close to a wall and it was impossible to move it. Totally flat batteries won't charge up with a normal battery tender so it was necessary to take it off and take it to my dealer who managed over 24 hrs to recover it.  Had this happened away from home it would also have been impossible to recover the bike without a crane. 
IMO keyless on a bike is daft as all it does is save you the trouble of inserting a key. You still have to fumble around finding your fod for the central locking and alarm.  And as its a straight steal from the 1600 it doesn't even fit properly into the yoke and looks like an afterthought.
Bet you can tell I'm a fan of the system.